Saturday, April 26, 2008

I got my hair cut yesterday and MAN is it short! I thought I had short hair before, but this time, it feels different somehow. At least it looks decent.

Derek's putting a ceiling fan in our bedroom! Thank goodness for handy husbands and handy fathers who's brains are full of tips for when handy husbands run out of ideas! Since our "box" (I don't know what "box" really means in this context. I'm guessing that it has to be something in the ceiling for the light) is too weak to support a fan, my dad suggested that Derek put a 2x4 across a couple beams in the attic and attach the box to that. So that's what Derek's doing now. I'm so excited for a ceiling fan! Our upstairs collects heat. A ceiling fan will be so nice!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Not much exciting has been happening around here. I've posted a couple of pictures of a model of our apartment. They were on the website for the complex so it's not actually ours but it looks just like it. :)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Our ward's Enrichment night was a blast! When they announced it on Sunday, I was a bit skeptical. The theme was "Discover the Artist Within." I am a very non-artistical person. Creativity does not flow through my veins. Well, at least not the artistic creativity. I'm creative in other ways.

Anyways, I came out of the experience realizing that I was, just a little, artistically creative! Yay for me! My favorite part of the evening was when we did blown watercolors. We put a spot of paint on the paper, and then blew through a straw to make some crazy designs. Mine ended up turning out well! I never paint well!

We've been busily setting up our lives here in Caldwell, ID. It's funny, we never thought we'd end up in Idaho, but here we are. Funny how life ends up in ways you wouldn't expect. The most unexpected thing for me is how much we really enjoy it here. Derek and are both so used to living in busier cities. He sort of grew up in Alexandria, VA and I grew up in Cary, NC, both fairly busy. Even Sokcho, small town South Korea, was pretty busy. Caldwell is transitioning from being rural farm town to being a more suburban area. It's actually really nice. People are more laid back, life seems a bit slower, and it's not at all ritzy like Cary was.

We were able to find a nice apartment pretty quickly. It's actually a four-plex, but that's weirder to say. For those of you who don't know, I came back from Korea a couple months earlier than Derek to help my parents out. They were (and still are, although not quite as seriously) having some health problems. Mr. Kim, our boss, was really understanding and worked it all out with us. So back to the point... I came back in February and started looking around for a place to live. We knew we didn't want to stay with my parents forever, as nice as they are to live with. I found the perfect place within a couple of weeks. I wasn't expecting to find something so quickly. Derek didn't want to be left out of this important decision, and I didn't want him to be either, but the deal was too good to wait ($550 rent for a 2-bed, 2-FULL bath, 950 sq ft place, and there was a $99 move-in special). After talking at length over AIM and Skype, we decided that it was a great place, and I put in a deposit and signed the lease for the beginning of March.

Derek finished his contract at the end of March, April 1st, we were able to start getting settled into our new life. We spent a couple of days with my parents just hanging out and helping out, and then traveled down to Provo and Las Vegas for a little relaxation after a job well done in Korea. We had so much fun! It was great to be able to spend some time together on a real vacation. Also, on the way back up, we were able to take another load of our stuff out of Derek's parent's garage (I had spent a great weekend with Derek's parents in March and took a load back then, too). Then on April 15th, we slept in our apartment for the first time. We'd been moving stuff in and around so it was too much of a mess to have moved ourselves in earlier. Thank goodness my parents live nearby and were able and willing to have us stay at their place for so long! Now we're mostly all moved in.... at least all the stuff we have at the moment. There's still a TON of boxes in Derek's parent's garage.... Who knows how that will all fit in our place!

Part of the reason why we chose this apartment was because they allowed pets. We knew we wanted to have a cat or cats, so this place was perfect. Last Wednesday (16th) we went over to a place called "Pet Haven" with my brother. I wasn't planning on getting one then. We didn't have all the essential kitty supplies, i.e. a litter box, etc. But as soon as we saw Willow, we knew we had to have her. We went planning on a couple other cats. But as we played with them, we realized they didn't have quite the personality that we were looking for. I think we tried out about six cats there at Pet Haven. Just as we were about to leave, the lady working there suggested Willow. "She's a sweet cat," she said. And she was right! She was the only cat that wanted attention from us! All the other cats were so excited about the toys and cat trees in the play room. Willow only wanted to snuggle with us. Needless to say, we took her home right then. What a cutie! And she's turned out to be just about the best cat you could ever ask for. Never uses her claws, always uses her box, loves to snuggle, and can also entertain herself. We haven't had to worry about our furniture at all! YAY!!!!

So here we are, a half moved in, two bedroom, one cat family. And we love it!